


Bets

by lealamalfoy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bets, Love Bites, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 16:25:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9333314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lealamalfoy/pseuds/lealamalfoy
Summary: One day, Harry Potter has a love bite and the rest of Hogwarts take it upon themselves to find out who gave it to him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> random joke story i found gathering dust in my archive of unfinished fics

A group of students sat in a circle in the 8th year common room. They were all from different houses, and a few from different years, but they were all there to discuss the same thing. Harry Potter had a love bite, and they all wanted to know who had given it to him.

“I reckon it was Ginny.” Ernie Macmillan announced, sounding sure of himself. “I've seen the way they are around each other.”

Ginny let out a short laugh but covered it up with a cough.

“They're over.” Ron said in both Ginny and Harry’s defence, even though he didn't fully trust his sister to not have been involved.

“Come on Ron, you're close to Harry. You must know something?” Parvati asked, resting her chin in her palm, like she was expecting to get some information out of him.

“He doesn't talk to me about that stuff.” Ron shrugged back, being fully truthful. He had as much of an idea as anyone else did.

“Maybe it's someone outside of Hogwarts?” Luna’s airy voice suggested. It left everyone in thought for a moment, as it was a high possibility.

“He has been sneaking out a lot. Maybe he’s been going to Hogsmeade?” It seemed this theory was the shared throughout the group, though everyone had their own little theories.

“I have an idea.” Seamus said loudly as he stood up, picking up a small pencil and tatty notepad. “Place a bet on who you think Harry is fucking.”

There was a murmur of agreement about the idea.

“Typical for you to want to make money out of it.” Hermione sighed as she closed her book. She was sat further away from the group, not agreeing with their choice of conversation topic. She thought they should respect Harry’s privacy. “Have any of you considered just asking him?”

“Where's the fun in that?” Seamus replied quickly, not wanting everyone to be put off his idea. He wouldn't let Hermione ruin his chance to make some money. “Okay. I'll go round and take all your bets, and if you’re right, I’ll give you double back.”

Another murmur of agreement and Seamus had started going round the group, writing down who they thought Harry’s mystery partner was and how much money they were willing to put to their theory.

“Ginny Weasley.” Ernie said confidently when it was his turn. The common amount of money was around 1 galleon, but Ernie was so confident that he was willing to risk 5.

“He’s just lost his money.” Ginny whispered into Luna’s ear, who had to hide her giggles behind her hand. Ginny was thankful that she hid her love bites far better than Harry.

A couple of people seemed to agree with Ernie’s conclusion and put their money on it, but there was still a wide of opinions.

“Romilda Vane. Her love potions quite powerful.”

“Tell me about it.” Ron muttered, but knew if that were the case, Harry would have been yelling about it from the rooftops, and Romilda wouldn't have been able to hide a smug grin. Ron thought an unknown girl from outside school was far more realistic, and so did Ginny, Luna and a few others, although one person did think the mystery person was Cho Chang.

“Okay, top ones so far are unknown girl in Hogsmeade and Ginny.” Seamus informed everyone while he examined his notepad.

“Aren't you going to ask me?” A voice asked from the other side of the room, and all eyes were suddenly on Pansy Parkinson. She had a smirk on her face and her arms were crossed.

“Okay, then. Who do you think Harry is shagging?” There was caution in Seamus’ voice and an air of suspense in the room and everyone waited for her reply. There was Slytherin’s in the group but none of them were in their eighth year, Pansy would be the first one.

“Draco Malfoy.”

The room erupted with questions, disgusted remarks and just confusion. Pansy, however, seemed satisfied and leaned back in her chair.

“You've got to be joking, right?” Ron asked, shocked. He knew Harry and Harry would never sleep with Malfoy, of all people, surely. He didn't even think Harry was gay.

“I'm deadly serious.” Pansy was still getting some unsure looks but Seamus wrote it down nethertheless. “Oh and put 20 galleons on it.”

“That's a lot of money you're wasting.” Someone told her, but she just smiled, like she knew she was getting it back.

The theories continued for a couple more weeks, new ones coming in whenever Harry interacted with someone, anyone at all. Sometimes people would make a big joke out of it and suggest he was banging the teachers, which made lessons much more exciting, but no one could get Pansy’s bet out of their minds.

Ron had thought about it again, and how Harry was obsessed with Malfoy during sixth year, but that was just knowing he was up to something as opposed to having sex with him. And Ginny thought about how Harry had been around Malfoy when they were dating, but still, no one could bring themselves to believe Pansy.

And now that everyone had seen the love bite, they easily noticed the times when Harry was late to a lesson with his clothes more of a mess than usual or times he’d just randomly disappear and come back looking like he’d been dragged through a bush. They all thought that if it was easy to see the signs in Harry that his partner would be just as obvious but they were wrong, no one showed any of the same signs Harry did.

Harry made his first major mistake on a cold winter's morning after a busy night. He was far too tired to notice his mistakes but it seemed everyone else did.

“Was he wearing a Slytherin scarf?” Dean asked as soon as Harry had left, making sure it wasn't just his eyes playing up.

“I think it was.” Ernie agreed, his theory of Harry’s partner being crushed.

“Well then.” Seamus stood up and pulled out his notepad. “I'm assuming some of you would like to make new guesses?” The two main theories had now been disproven. It couldn't have been Ginny and it most likely wasn't someone outside of school. It had to be a Slytherin.

“Why don't we ask someone from Slytherin?” Ron suggested and started scanning the room for an appropriate Slytherin to ask. At first, his eyes landed on Pansy, but he knew that wouldn't go well because of her bet before so Ron chose the next best option. “Oi, Zabini!” He called over, catching Blaise’s attention. “Who in Slytherin would be Harry’s type?”

Blaise pondered for a moment, glanced at Pansy briefly before answering. “That's a tricky one since I don't know his type.”

“He dated Ginny and Cho. Does that help?” Ron was so eager to get to the bottom of this mystery that he didn't mind telling the Slytherin that piece of information. It was a better option than asking Harry himself, which he felt too awkward to do.

Pansy leaned closer to Blaise, and whispered in his ear. “Don't forget his little crush on Cedric.”

“So he likes Seekers?” Blaise had come to his conclusion, and was a bit surprised it took them longer to realise where he was going with it, but they soon all clicked.

“He's not shagging Malfoy!”

“May I suggest something?” Pansy questioned, but didn't wait for an answer before continuing. “Perhaps you’re all looking at this at the wrong angle. Instead of looking for something, like for instance, a love bite, look for the things that are not there.” It was all the help Pansy was going to give them, and it was quite a big hint.

Hermione looked up from her book and looked Pansy dead in the eye, being the first one to realise the importance of Pansy’s words. Pansy winked at Hermione, knowing she had also figured it out.

Everyone else, however, still had no idea. They deemed both Pansy and Blaise’s advice useless and instead went through a list of Slytherin’s that Harry might date. Most of them were from younger years, like Astoria Greengrass, which meant that none of them knew the potentials well enough to be certain. They were all a bit annoyed that the younger years weren't around yet, but even when they were summoned, they couldn't add any more to the table.

Luna had been the first one to ask Pansy to repeat what she said, and it clicked for her too. She smiled and walked away with a bounce in her step, satisfied that she knew the answer. Ginny pestered her all day to find out too, but Luna told her to work it out for herself.

Ron was next to work it out, partially anyway. During potions the next week they had been put into pairs, and Harry had been paired with Draco. Ron remembered what Pansy said and realised that there was no complaining from either of them, or any arguments. Granted, they did squabble, but it was like how Ron would squabble with Harry but more sarcastic.

The next time Ron saw Ginny, he reported what he had seen and now she too understood. They hadn't argued once in public for two months now, and Draco had started to lay off everyone else.

Despite this discovery, neither of them could bring themselves to believe it. One, they didn't even know Harry was gay, and two, if Harry was gay, would he go for Malfoy of all people?

Ron came to the conclusion that Draco had just realised he was a prat and had to be nice to Harry for saving his life and that Pansy was just playing with them all. Ginny agreed, but thought she’d do some subtle investigating work, just in case.

“Harry?” Ginny called out as loudly as she could in the library. Hermione had told her that he was studying in there, but she had no idea where he was sitting and really didn't want to search for him.

“Over here.”

Ginny followed the voice to see Harry sitting on his own surrounded by a pile of books. She walked closer and went to pull out the chair in front of him.

“Not there!” Harry quickly yelled before she could even touch the chair. Ginny thought it was rather odd that he cared so much about where she sat. Cautiously, she sat next to him instead and looked at the books. It was rather a lot for someone who was studying by themselves.

“We haven't spoken in a while. I just wanted to see if you were okay?” She asked politely while casually trying to work out what books he was looking at. Wait. Was that an Arithmancy book? Harry didn't take Arithmancy…

“I'm fine.” Harry assured her and followed her eyeline to the Arithmancy book. “Oh, I was curious about other parts of magic.” He lied the best he could, and just hoped Ginny believed him. Ginny thought it was odd, yes, but had to admit that she had once looked at other subjects out of curiousity so let it drop.

“Still single?” Ginny aimed for it to be subtle but it came across as anything but.

“Um, no, actually.” Harry seemed to jump in pain but Ginny couldn’t see any way that it could have been caused. “What I meant was is I’m still single.” He looked a bit disappointed, and Ginny could have sworn that he glared at the space in front of him.

Ginny patted his shoulder. “You’ll find someone eventually, I mean, I did.” She smiled at the thought of Luna. “However, there is nothing wrong with a bit of sex during the meantime.” She winked at him before getting up and headed straight for the 8th year common room, where she fed back her conversation to Ron.

It was no new information though, and they were still no closer to discovering his mystery lover than anyone else.

Pansy found it very amusing to watch everyone fail at guessing correctly. They could easily work it out just like she had, and Salazar, she’d told them as well.

It was an hour later when Draco came storming through the common room, with Harry close behind.

“Leave me the fuck alone!” Draco snapped at Harry loudly when he saw the Gryffindor behind him. This outburst got everyone’s attention and the room’s noise faded into silence.

“You know what, you’re a right fucking git and I hate it!” Harry yelled back, the anger clear in both of them.

Ron looked at Pansy smugly. He knew she was wrong and now Harry was back to arguing with Draco.

“That’s rich coming from you! How dare you accuse me of such a thing?! I thought after the war people’s opinions had changed but it seems you’re still being an arse!” Draco was flapping his arms around passionately, his anger forcing him to lose his usual neutral expressions and posture. It was Ginny’s fault for the comment about sex which Harry had taken too literally.

Harry glanced around the room at everyone watching and it dawned on him that this was no longer a private argument. “Are you going to do this here?”

Draco was dangerously close to saying something he may regret, or Harry may hate but that didn’t matter. “Yes. I’m going to do this here. In front of everyone.” He took a step closer to Harry. Harry looked slightly scared and everyone else was worried that the argument may turn physical.

Pansy didn’t see the problem, and was examining her nails like they were much more interesting. She had a look that said she knew exactly what was about to happen.

“Harry Potter, I am not using you in the way you rudely suggested. If I was, do you think I would have accepted your invitation to Hogsmeade, or your study sessions, or plan for you to meet my parents?” The last statement made Harry’s jaw drop, and even Pansy looked up surprised. “Yeah, I was going to introduce you properly. And surely, if you knew me well enough, you would have known that if I didn’t feel the same way, I would have slapped you for your admission.”

Harry’s eyes widened, and then he blinked. “Are you sure? You feel the same way?” It sounded as if Harry wasn’t even sure himself, but Draco nodded back. The words weren’t spoken but Harry knew they were there.

Everyone watching was completely lost, only knowing half of the argument but they finally got the gist of it when Draco stepped closer and leaned down to Harry, kissing him gently. Harry sparked into action and kissed back, cupping Draco’s face and making the kiss much less gentle, but still brilliant.

Pansy smirked at everyone’s surprised faces and held her hand out for Seamus to give her her earned galleons.

They all learnt that day, never question a Slytherin’s observational skills, especially when it involved her best friend and his love life.


End file.
